Adrift
by Dana Doggett
Summary: Doggett and Scully investigate what could be a haunted yacht.


Title: Adrift Author: Dana Doggett - Website: .com/  
Dates: September 11, 2008 Distribution: Semper Fi, Lost In Your Eyes, Serenity of X, We Shall Not Forget XFMU. All others please ask.  
Rating: PG-13 Category: Doggett/Scully, humor, casefile Timeline: Anytime after season 9 as if "The Truth" didn't happen.  
Episode References: I found as I wrote this that I made a few nods towards "Hollywood A.D." nothing that you really need to know though.  
Beta: N/A Summary: Doggett and Scully investigate what could be a haunted yacht.  
Author's Note: This story is in response to the LOST AT SEA fanfic challenge at the Doggett/Scully creative challenge site, Lost In Your Eyes.

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"There should be another four hours in a day." John Doggett gazes out to sea from the deck of a small yacht, watching as the sun's golden rays slowly dip below the watery horizon.  
"Regardless, Agent Doggett, we still have a case to solve." Dana Scully gently rests her hand on her partner's arm and smiles at him sympathetically.  
"Yeah, well, you still have yet to convince me that we're going to leave here with solid proof that a ghost has been haunting-"  
"-Skinner assigned us to this case for his friend," and she says this with a hint of annoyance in her voice, "Wayne Federman, if we can come up with an explanation that satisfies his curiosity " Scully trails off when she sees the expression on Doggett's face.  
"Aren't you afraid our names and faces are going to get plastered on some Hollywood tabloid next to his?" Doggett shakes his head and laughs at himself, "FBI goes Hollywood, Agents help research ghost ship for upcoming Halloween thriller", Doggett makes up a tabloid news headline.  
Scully cracks a smile, his dry sense of humor and way of making up headlines or explanations lawyers could say to a judge if they had the balls, always make her laugh.  
"John tabloids would be more likely to make up a story about our sex life and how I'm pregnant with a baby ghost, and then obsess over who's the daddy."  
Doggett winces, she's right. Tabloids only seem interested in sex, infidelity, weight loss or gain, the Jolie/Pitt/Aniston drama, and other such nonsense. Not that he gazes at the tabloids while waiting in line at the grocery store.  
"That'd be more of an X-File than what we're actually here for." He looks behind him back to where Wayne Federman stands along with the yacht's captain, he rolls his eyes as he sees Wayne using his hands to frame he and Scully in a "shot" with this evening's sunset.  
Scully follows his gaze and smiles. "Think we ought to give him some action to go along with that shot?"  
Doggett grins at her, knowing what she's suggesting. He leans toward her and kisses her lips, lingering there for a bit longer than they're both comfortable with while on the clock.  
Their lips part and Scully wraps her arm around his waist.  
"Agent Doggett, there are rules and regulations regarding your actions " She's teasing him.  
"You're an exception to the rule." He winks at her.  
His words make her grin. Straight from the beginning of their relationship they decided against trying to hide it while at work. They both had been in previous relationships with co-workers and learned that keeping a relationship secret did nothing to keep the relationship strong. In fact, the secrecy was one of many reasons why each of their in-office relationships had failed. Scully finds it refreshing when Doggett expresses his feelings for her while they're at work. He doesn't do it all the time, only when the moment is deemed appropriate.  
"So whatever happened between you and Walter?" Wayne's prying voice ruins the moment. His question is directed at Scully, whom he believes to have been intimately involved with Walter Skinner.  
Scully removes her arm from Doggett's waist and faces Wayne.  
"How many times do I have to tell you, I was never involved with A.D. Skinner." The tone in her voice very well could suggest that she's a bad liar.  
"Sure, I see, and I assume now all your paperwork, ahem, is done in your office with Agent Doggett?"  
Doggett fails at concealing a laugh when he sees how red Scully's face has become. The more Wayne pokes and prods her about whether or not she and Skinner had, in his words, "got it on", the harder it gets for her to deny his accusations.  
Scully playfully slaps Doggett's arm, "What're you laughing at?" She gives him the stink eye and he composes himself.  
"Nothing."  
Wayne eyes them both suspiciously and nods his head and moves the direction of the conversation.  
"Anyhoo, sun's-a-settin', best get out your proton packs and be ready for some ghost busting." His humor was nothing to get excited about.  
Doggett and Scully share a look, neither one of them amused by his lack of respect for the work that they are here to do.  
"You've said that you've heard 'ghostly voices' aboard the yacht. Is there a particular area where these voices are prominent?" Scully pulls out a small memo pad and pen from her coat pocket.  
"Downstairs, in the cabins, sounds as if the voices are coming right from the walls."  
"Are the walls made of metal?" Doggett crosses his arms across his chest.  
"Yes."  
"Metal is a known conductor of energy, spirits, ghosts if you will, could have a strong connection to the metals used in this boat."  
"This is a new yacht. I'm the first owner."  
Scully sighs, adding to Doggett's theory, "It's possible that the yacht was made from recycled metals from other ships, it's not uncommon for airliners to build planes, using recovered, metallic parts, from crash sites, some people believe that the trauma of the crash on the dead could be recorded, for lack of a better term, into the recycled metals therefore being the reason why your ship is haunted." Scully smiles remembering an episode of a TV show called "The Others" that Mulder made her watch years ago. Who says you can't learn a little something by watching Friday night primetime on NBC?  
"You're saying that my boat's metals are possessed?" Wayne isn't sure if Scully's pulling his leg or not.  
"Not possessed rather a conductor of spirit energy."  
Doggett speaks up, "Mr. Federman, have you or any of your guests ever actually seen a ghost?" Doggett decides to eye him as if he were a detective questioning a suspect, if only to see the man squirm uncomfortably before him.  
"I once entertained actress," he puffs out his chest, his tone bragging that he's acquainted with celebrities, "Katie Morgan, and she freaked out claiming she saw some man in her bedroom not me who was moving his mouth, trying to say something to her."  
"Was she strung out?" Doggett asks dryly.  
"No faith in the famous, eh?" Wayne thinks he's cracking a joke and laughs at his words.  
"I asked you a question." Doggett stares him down.  
"She was drunk, whether or not she doped herself up I don't know."  
Doggett nods his head. He looks to Scully, she seems lost in her own thoughts. He's not even sure she's listening. He looks back to Wayne.  
"Agent Scully and I will go about our business, if you need us we'll be below deck, checking out the cabins."  
"If you get frisky with each other, make sure you change the sheets afterward, there's nothing worse than lying down in another man's dried up semen." Wayne walks away laughing at what he said.  
Doggett rolls his eyes at him and then focuses his attention on Scully.  
"Hey."  
Scully looks up at him, "Yeah?"  
"You don't look well, you ok? Got a case of sea sickness?" He places his hand on her lower back.  
"No, it's not that, I just uh... he said that Katie Morgan saw a man trying to say something to her..." She pauses. "When my dad died, before I got the call from my mom, I woke up and saw my father sitting in the chair in front of me, his mouth was moving, saying words that I could not hear..." She trails off.  
"And you think that Katie had a visitation from someone she knew who had passed?"  
"Maybe..." Scully seems distant as if the case isn't the first thing on her mind. "Dana?"  
"I wish my father could have met you. You two would have had so much to talk about, his Navy stories, your Marines stories," she smiles, "I know he would have loved you."  
Doggett isn't sure what to say, he nods his head, also wishing he could have met her father.  
"I'm sorry, John, being out here on this boat, it makes me think of my dad. I still miss him even after all these years."  
"They say that when you lose a loved one that it gets better but that you never actually get over it."  
Scully nods, reflecting on the loss of her father, her sister, her brother Charles who lost his life fighting over in Iraq, Emily, her son William, and also of the time where Mulder had been considered dead. Each loss took a part of her with them, which she can never get back. She looks into Doggett's eyes and knows that he knows how it feels as well, he lost his son and his father in the same year and more recently his mother's health has been declining. At least they have each other, that makes living in this world that much more bearable.  
Doggett opens the door that leads them to stairs taking them below deck. They both pause for a brief moment, are they afraid of what could be down there?  
Scully flips on the light switch and starts heading down.  
"Are you sure you don't want to use one of these?" Doggett pulls out his flashlight. "Could make this more interesting."  
Scully raises an eyebrow, he's awfully playful today.  
"If you think darkness will aid in our investigation, Agent Doggett, I have no objection."  
Doggett turns on his flashlight and turns off the overhead lights. He follows closely behind Scully and leans down to whisper in her ear.  
"It's more spooky this way..."  
Doggett nearly jumps out of his skin as his cell phone rings, he drops his flashlight to the floor.  
Scully can't help it, she's laughing uncontrollably. She picks up his flashlight as he answers his phone.  
"John Doggett."

Mulder swivels around in his chair in the X-Files basement office, a pencil in his hand, he flips it up toward the ceiling, planting it in the tile above him. He leans forward over his desk and speaks into his phone.  
"Agent Doggett, how's it going out there? You and Scully nab any ghosts?"

Doggett mouths out "it's Mulder" to Scully.  
"No, no ghosts yet, Mulder. You got any tips on how to bring them out from their hiding places?"

Mulder stands up and walks toward the filing cabinets.  
"You could always try a s ance, but let me warn you, Scully used to use s ances as a way to get guys to make out with her in high school. I'm not sure if she ever told you that."

"No, she hasn't." Doggett eyes Scully in a way that makes her wonder what he and Mulder are talking about.

"Well if you think Skinner sent you two out on a bogus case, use that to uh... pass the time."  
"I'll keep that in mind."  
"I'm sure you will." Mulder smiles as he pulls out a file from the cabinet, the folder is labeled RECORDING GHOSTS, "Hey, look, something just came in that I need to take care of. Give me a call if you need my help."  
Mulder hangs up his phone before Doggett can respond. He sits down at his desk to explore, once again, this casefile about a recording ghost in Georgetown.  
Monica Reyes comes though the door, with a large bowl of popped microwave popcorn in her hands.  
She stops dead in her tracks when she sees Mulder looking at a casefile.  
"I thought we weren't going to work tonight."  
Mulder looks up at her, "Sorry, I got caught up thinking about that case Scully and Doggett are on."  
"Well put it away and let's set up the projector to play that reel-to-  
reel movie you won off eBay. Which one is it again, 'Glen or Glenda'?"  
"Plan 9 From Outer Space."  
Monica pulls a chair over from Doggett's desk and takes a seat behind Mulder's desk; she kicks her feet up on the desk.  
"Ooh, I haven't seen that one in years." She sounds happy that this is the movie they're spending their Friday night watching.  
"It's one of my favorites. Scully hates it, she watched part of it with me once with a sneer on her face the entire time." He waits while Monica laughs. "Of course I was saying all the dialog with the movie so maybe that's what bothered her."  
Monica laughs and puts a handful of popcorn into her mouth.  
Mulder dims the office lights and starts the projector. He takes his seat next to Monica.  
"Bet you never knew staying late at work on a Friday could be so much fun." Mulder playfully nudges Monica's arm as the movie begins and Mulder proceeds to say the opening dialog, "Greetings, my friend. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives! And remember, my friend, future events, such as these, will effect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown, the mysterious, the unexplainable- that is why you are here."  
Monica laughs and throws popcorn at Mulder. To his surprise she joins him on reciting the dialog with him.  
"And now, for the first time, we are bringing you the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are giving you all the evidence- based only on the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places... my friends, we cannot keep his a secret any longer! Let us punish the guilty, let us reward the innocent. My friends, can your hearts stand the shocking facts about Grave Robbers From Outer Space?"

Now with her own flashlight on, Scully is going from cabin to cabin, pausing at each one and listening as hard as she can for any faint sound of ghostly voices. She and Doggett have been doing this for the past hour without incident.  
Doggett steps out of the cabin room down the hall from where she is, his body language says it all, he's given up.  
"Dana, maybe we could do a s ance and see if that gets a rise out of the ghosts." What Mulder told him is on his mind.  
Scully continues to investigate.  
"Mulder tell you about high school and s ances, did he?" She steps out of the cabin she was in and aims her flashlight at Doggett. He's been caught.  
"He did." He rubs the back of his neck.  
"Hmm." Scully purses her lips and makes her way over to Doggett. "Like you, I have a hard time believing this yacht is haunted so... why don't we," she leans into him and kisses his neck, "skip the s ance and get on with what you really want to do..."  
Scully turns off her flashlight and places her lips against his, and he's more than willing to shove rules and regulations aside and forget about ghost hunting for the time being to do this. Keeping his flashlight on, he places his hand on her back and guides her, lip-  
locked, into one of the cabins. The back of his legs hits the end of the bed and he falls backward, Scully falling on top of him. He lets go of his flashlight and it provides just enough light so they can see what they're going to do to each other.  
Scully kisses him eagerly as her hands untuck his shirt. She slides her hands underneath it and feels her way from his toned abdomen to his chest. She feels him loosening up her shirt so she rises, straddling him and begins unbuttoning her blouse.  
Doggett can't contain himself, he sits up and takes her in his arms and flips her onto her back, she gasps at the manner of his delicate attack on her body. His mouth covers hers as he uses his left hand to finish unbuttoning her shirt. He moves the fabric back to expose her white cotton bra. He places his hand on her covered breast and gently squeezes it. She shifts beneath him, feeling his erection pressing against her thigh.  
"Johnny, we can't go all the way, that'd be bad." She's disappointed that she's saying this, but they are out here to work, not to play.  
"I know." He kisses her forehead.  
Scully nods her head and proceeds to unzip his pants; he helps her remove them from his body and then helps her out of hers. He raises an eyebrow when he sees her panties.  
"Friday?"  
"Oh yeah, that."  
"Oh yeah?" He's amused.  
Scully takes a breath before explaining.  
"Monica gave me days of the week panties as a gag gift for my birthday... I thought they were cute so..."  
"So you decided to wear them?"  
Scully nods her head. The look in Doggett's eyes change.  
"Kinda sexy..."  
He bends down and kisses her hip bone, temporarily Scully forgets their no sex rule, she aches for him to touch her, she spreads her legs just slightly, but he doesn't and continues to plant small kisses up her abdomen, her rib cage, her cleavage, neck and finally her mouth. She runs her fingertips down his back, causing his nipples to become erect. He lets out a gasp of his own as she cups and kneads his ass with her hands.  
He laughs at himself and shakes his head in amusement, "Sweetheart, I'm gonna need a cold shower here before you know it."  
She grins at him devilishly, "Maybe that's my point."  
They kiss again but are jolted back to Earth by a sudden shudder throughout the yacht. Doggett rolls off of her and grabs his flashlight.  
"What was that?" He's trying his best not to sound afraid.  
"Sounded like we hit something." Scully throws her blouse back on, not taking the time to button it.  
Without thinking of throwing the rest of their clothes back on, Doggett and Scully head back up on deck. He in his army green, bulldog, USMC boxer shorts. She in her Friday panties, bra and unbuttoned blouse.  
On deck, it's pitch black, almost as if the yacht has been abandoned.  
"You go that way, I'll go this way." Doggett points and they split up.  
Scully heads toward the stern and Doggett runs toward the bow of the ship. Scully peers over the rail to see if they hit something. In the dark she can't see a thing and Doggett is the one with the flashlight. Quite frankly she doesn't want to see anything, she's struck by the sudden fear of the possibility that this may be caused by a ghost.  
She wishes Mulder were here in this moment, things like this rarely shook him, she'd be able to ramble on and on about how rationally she shouldn't be scared since there's nothing to be scared of, but without his constant ramblings of facts on ghosts and hauntings she's left with her own imagination. "Dana!"  
She hears Doggett calling out for her, his voice sounds far away. Her heartbeat quickens as she hears the sound of thuds growing nearer and nearer as if someone or something is quickly closing in on her. Her eyes go wide then she sees the beam of light from Doggett's flashlight.  
"John?!"  
"No one's on board!" He pauses to catch his breath. "No one's driving this thing!"  
"What do you mean no one's driving this thing?!" Her voice betrays her and all her fear comes out in this exclamation.  
She shouldn't panic, but she is. She knows how to operate a boat, she spent many nights with her father out at sea in his boat, learning how to operate it, he taught her how to use celestial navigation to find her way back home, this shouldn't be so terrifying, but it is.  
"Nobody's on the yacht, just you and I."  
He holds out a piece of paper with a note on it. Scully takes it from him and reads it aloud.  
"John and Dana, sorry the Captain and I ditched you. Walter assured me that at least one of you knows how to operate a boat. There's no ghost, Walter made that up to get you guys out here for a nice vacation. Enjoy. The keys are in the cockpit. Wayne."  
Scully's eyes are wide. She looks up at Doggett.  
"Is he serious?"  
They both go to grab their cell phones from their pockets only to come to the realization that they are not fully clothed. They share a "at least we're the only ones on this thing" look and they run back to the stairs. Only things aren't as they should be. Much to their horror water has been filling up below deck and at a good rate too.  
"We did hit something!" Doggett's voice cracks. "Our clothes and phones!" He points at the water coming up from below, which is just now spilling onto the deck.  
Scully grabs him by the shoulders and makes him look at her.  
"John, this boat is sinking, we need to find a raft or a lifeboat."  
"No one's going to know where we are if we can't call them. There's nothing to ping us with." "That wouldn't matter out here anyway since there are no cell towers they can triangulate from." Scully almost laughs. "Besides, give Mulder enough time and he'll come out here to help us look for ghosts and that's when we'll be found."  
"Unless he's spending time flirting with Monica."  
Scully gives him a look to tell him to get a grip on himself. Doggett takes a breath and composes himself; this is no time to flip out. He's faced worse situations in his line of work; this shouldn't be so frightening.  
For the next several minutes they scurry around the yacht in search of a lifeboat. Doggett emerges from the cockpit with an inflatable raft and holds it up.  
"Will this do?"  
Scully nods her head. With the boat sinking they go to part of the deck that is already submerged under water and Doggett pulls the cord to inflate the raft. Scully steps in without a hitch and the addition of her body weight causes the raft to start to drift away from Doggett.  
"Get in, John."  
But he just stands there. She tilts her head to the side, confused about why he's not moving.  
"John?"  
"I have an irrational fear of inflatable rafts in the ocean." He looks up, his eyes sincerely giving away the fact that he's afraid.  
"What?!" She can't believe her ears; after all Doggett's been through in life it's an inflatable raft that slows him down?  
"I saw 'Jaws 2' and that did me in, all those kids out in their little boats being hunted by that shark."  
The raft drifts further away from him as he takes the time to explain his fear.  
"John, you're going to have to face this fear of yours and swim out to me now, ok? Focus."  
Her eyes lock with his and he nods his head and doesn't hesitate to get into the water, a few strokes later and he's crawling into the raft, sopping wet. He falls into Scully's lap and lets out an I'm-happy-to-  
be-alive sigh.  
"You ok?"  
"Yeah." "Maybe I ought to take you to some marine aquarium and have you suited up to swim with sharks so that you will know that not every shark is a man-eater. In fact the only reason why sharks attack human beings is because the splashing we make in the water sounds like the splashing of the animals, like seals, that is a part of their diet."  
"And here we sit in a small raft miles out at sea."  
"Plus great white sharks aren't common in these waters, they're more likely to be found off the shores of Australia."  
"That's comforting."  
Scully runs her fingers through Doggett's wet hair, and they let a few quiet moments pass.  
"At least it looks like we were out swimming and got lost. No one should be able to tell we're only in our under garments."  
This gets a laugh out of Doggett. He sits up and looks in the direction of the yacht.  
"Take a good look at her."  
They watch as the yacht sinks below the surface. Now it's only a question of how long they'll be lost at sea before Mulder (their best bet), Skinner, Wayne Federman, or the Coast Guard finds them.  
Doggett leans back against the side of the raft and looks at Scully.  
"Remind me to thank my travel agent."  
"You mean Skinner."  
"Right."  
Underneath the starry night sky, they drift, waiting for someone to rescue them. Scully leans her head against Doggett's shoulder and closes her eyes as he wraps his arm around her to do his best to keep her warm. He kisses her on the top of her head and closes his eyes.  
THE END

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Here are the LOST AT SEA fanfic challenge requirements:  
Challenge Subject: Lost At Sea Doggett and Scully are on a casefile investigating something paranormal. They have to end up on a boat or some kind - large or small, and they get lost at sea. Fanfic should include at least three of the following:  
* Scully's father mentioned * fear of water and/or sea sickness * sea shell * wine bottle * floating dead body * set of keys * "What do you mean no one's driving this thing?" * "I guess there really is no place like home." * "Remind me to thank my travel agent."  
If you'd like to participate in Doggett/Scully creative challenges check out Lost In Your Eyes:  
.com/dsr/ 


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